Let's Pretend We Don't Exist
by Solitary Shadows
Summary: Rei learns that the opposite of immortality isn't getting younger, it's just stopping. Just stopping everything. 'I want to pretend I don't exist, I want to pretend that everything's going to be okay.' Angst Oneshot.


A/N: OMG! Finally out of writer's block after so long! And it's summer vacation, baby! Yow XD  
I just listened to Of Montreal's song, Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games) and I thought, why not write another angst based on this song? And I guess this song just...kind of inspired me again.

Warning: Angst, and Rei is a bit...crazy T.T Sorry, I just have this thing on picking on the poor boy..

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Beyblade. Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games) lyrics belongs to Of Montreal.

**LET'S PRETEND WE DON'T EXIST**  
_by: Solitary Shadows_

-----

_Let's have bizarre celebrations  
Let's forget who forget what forget where_

"Let's go somewhere else," Rei says one day while sitting on the couch with Kai and Tyson.

Tyson raises his eyebrow at Rei. "Hm? You know we can't leave, the fans are right outside, you fool." He smiles and his dimples dig deep into his face and Rei wonders if Tyson used a shovel to dig those.

Tyson turns to Kai, "Turn the TV up a little more, the fans are getting louder," before refocusing on Rei. "What's with the strange ideas, Rei? Maybe you're hungry?" He stands and stretches while yawning, "Alright, I'll make you a sandwich to eat. You want to come help?"

Rei stands, but simply watches Tyson's back turn the corner and disappear into the kitchen before turning to Kai.

"What about you?" Rei breathes and Kai glances up from the TV.

"Huh?"

Rei smiles, "Let's go somewhere else. How about Antarctica?"

Kai laughs and, when Tyson calls for him and Rei, stands.

"Crazy kid," he smiles and ruffles Rei's hair affectionetly before heading towards the kitchen as well.

Rei sits back down on the couch, turning up the volume to the television.

_What's wrong with Antarctica?_

---

"I've been thinking," Rei says while lying on his back on the bed with Max, who is lying on his belly, "Maybe we should leave this place."

Max doesn't look up from his book, but nods anyways. "Definetly," he says, "Especially since the fans found this place so fast. I wonder who's telling them?"

Rei frowns. "That's not what I mean. I mean, maybe we should just leave." Rei lifts and finger and begins to count the number of stars Kenny had planted on their ceiling. "Maybe we should take a trip," he smiles and loses his count, "we should take a trip to Antarctica and stay there forever." He waits for Max's answer and starts over,_ One star, two stars, three stars, four stars...  
_  
"Stay in Antarctica forever?" Max laughs softly and looks up from his book, smiling at Rei. "But then," Max readjusts his glasses in that way that makes him seem so much smarter, "It wouldn't be a trip."

Rei stops counting and faces Max. "Huh? Why not?"

Max shakes a finger at Rei and Rei resists the urge to tell him that pointing at people is rude. "Because, if we stayed in Antarctica forever, then it wouldn't be a trip. It's only a trip if we go someplace and then come back home. So we can't take a trip to Antarctica. If you wanted to stay in Antarctica forever, then you'd have to move there."

Rei looks back up at the ceiling and imagines snow falling towards his face and he closes his eyes. "That's fine with me," he smiles and ignores the strange look Max is giving him as he curls up into a ball, shivering slightly from the chill that runs up his spine, and goes to sleep.

---

"So how much do you think it would cost to go to Antarctica?" Rei says while walking in on Tyson and Max's beyblading session outside their backyard. Max stops beyblading and smiles at Rei, a little bit frustrated at the interuption.

Tyson laughs, "What'd you say, Rei?"

Rei smiles. "Would any of you like to come to Antarctica with me?"

Tyson's eyes widen and he grins. "Oh, that sounds like fun! Is it a Beybreaker trip?"

Rei shakes his head. "No, it's not a trip. I'm going to move there."

There's an awkward silence before Tyson breaks out into laughter and Max follows.

Rei shrugs. "Your loss. Would someone help me get a suitcase? I'm too short."

Max nods his head and waves a hand at Rei.

"Sure, I'll be there in a couple minutes, you just wait in my room and I'll get mine for you."

Rei gives a polite, "thank you," before leaving the room and walking a small distance to Max and Kenny's room where he opens the door to a peaceful darkness.

Rei closes the door behind him and sits on Max's bed, waiting for him to show.

Rei waits there all night in the dark before Kenny comes in and tells him to scramble because he needs his "beauty sleep."

_We'll have bizarre celebrations  
I'll play the Satyr in Cypris you the bride being stripped bare_

---

"What are you doing?" Kenny asks as he watches Rei spin the globe on Kenny's desk.

Rei looks up, a little bit shocked. "Nothing, really." he says before turning back to the globe.

Kenny's eyes roam over Rei before walking up to the hin and placing a hand on Rei's forehead, checking the temperature. "Why are you wearing a scarf in such hot weather?"

Rei's eyes widen and his mouth hangs open. "Hot weather? Kenny, have you lost your mind? It's freezing here!" Rei spins the globe again and waits carefully before placing his finger on top and stopping it. "Antarctica," Rei smiles to himself.

"I'm sure it's much warmer there."

Kenny frowns and takes Rei's hand off the globe, pulling him into a standing position.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Kenny's eyebrows raise in worry.

Rei grins. "Sure. Can I take this globe with me?"

---

Kai watches Rei from the couch as he runs his fingers up and down the piano.

_He's be doing that for about two hours now_.

The noise stops and Kai waits for his eyes to refocus.

Rei turns towards Kai and jumps a little bit in his seat.

"Oh. When'd you get here, Kai?"

Kai frowns. "Kenny tells me you've been having weird dreams."

Rei smiles. "Weird dreams? No, I've been having the best dreams ever, lately."

"Really now?" Kai tilts his head and tries to smile as if he understands. "What are they about?"

Rei looks up at the ceiling, the same stars staring down at him. "Well, this one dream, everyone was walking right past me."

Kai's smile drops for a minute. "Everyone? How so?"

Rei turns back to Kai, laughing. "Everyone, Kai! You... Tyson... Max..." he closes his eyes and smiles, his neck arching back, "It was so nice. It was like I didn't exist, and I didn't have to worry about anything. All of you guys and all the fans were walking right past me and it made me so happy, Kai."

Kai stands, his knees aching from being in a sitting position for so long, and walks to Rei, leaning over and draping his arms around the his neck.

"What's wrong?" He whispers and Rei frowns.

"Does something have to be wrong?" Rei questions, "What's wrong with pretending I don't exist?"

_Let's pretend we don't exist  
Let's pretend we're in Antartica_

---

"Sometimes, I wish I could just forget all about this," Rei says while sitting on his bed and organizing his collection of shampoos and conditioners he has received from the various hotels they've stayed at.

Tyson looks up from the magazine Max is letting him borrow and smiles, confused. "Forget about what, Rei?"

Rei keeps his eyes pinned on the little bottles sitting in the basket on his lap, trying to organize them in every possible way, by color, by cap size, by bottle size, by brand...

"I just want to forget about this entire life," Rei takes a bottle that's just a little bit too fat and a little bit too dull and places it outside the basket, wondering, just for a moment, if that is what he's like compared to the rest of them before returning to his previous task.

Tyson closes the maganize and turns his body towards Rei, interested. "Why would you want to forget about your life?"

Rei shoots a glance at Tyson, chuckling softly. "Why wouldn't I, you mean?" He gives an angry sigh and pushes the basket off his lap, watching as the bottles fly off the bed and out of the basket.

The bottles made the prettiest pattern on the floor that Rei had ever seen.

Tyson opens his mouth to respond, but Kenny pokes his head through the door and cries out, "Dinner!" and Rei stands, following Kenny.

Tyson stares at the bottles on the floor, sliding off the bed and picking up the basket as he began to place all the bottles in the basket. It didn't matter what order, anyways, since all the bottles were the same.

---

Max opens the door to the balcony and carefully steps over Rei, sitting beside him and staring up at the clouds.

"Why are you lying on the balcony, Rei?"

Rei peeks open one eye, smiling before shutting it again.

"I'm imagining that snow is falling on me right now."

Max looks at Rei's outfit, looking at the many layers hiding underneath the ski outfit that Rei wears.

Max sighs. "Why would you do that, Rei?"

Rei opens both eyes and imagines that the cloud above him is a penguin.

"Because, Max, I have to prepare myself mentally for the weather if I want to be able to survive in Antarctica."

_Let's have bizarre celebrations  
Lets forget when forget what forget how  
We'll have bizarre celebrations  
We'll play Tristan and Izolde but make sure I see white sails_

---

"Hey," Rei whispers across the room to Kai, "can you take me to the library?"

Kai squints at the younger one. "Why are you whispering?"

Rei looks around the room cautiously. "People might hear."

There is no one else in the room.

Kai shrugs. "Alright. I'll take you to the library. Any particular reason why?"

Rei grins and nods rapidly. "Yes!"

He beckons Kai to come closer with his finger.

"Because," Rei giggles, "while the world is distracted looking for the potion to immortality, I want to go look for something that will make me younger."

Kai stares at Rei.

Rei frowns. "Don't worry, Kai!" He laughs quietly, "Of course I'll give some to you too."

Kai doesn't respond and Rei shifts onto the couch, turning on the TV and complaining, "I don't get it, why doesn't the news ever show what the weather is in Antarctica?"

_Maybe I'll never die  
I'll just keep growing younger with you  
And you'll grow younger too  
Now it seems too lovely to be true but I know the best things always do_

---

Kenny watches as Rei calmly walks into his room, looking around.

Rei walks up to Kenny's night table and opens the drawers, a disappointed look on his face, before moving on and sliding open the closet.

Rei's face lights up as he reaches into the very back of Kenny's closet and pulls out some ski goggles and attaches them to his head before walking towards the door.

"Rei-ah," Kenny frowns, "Where are you going with that?"

Rei freezes and stiffly turns around.

"You can see me?"

Kenny laughs. "What kind of question is that?"

Rei sighs and pulls the goggles off his head, throwing them at Kenny.

"Darn. I'm not very good at pretending I don't exist then, I suppose."

---

Tyson notices a suitcase by the door and stares at it for a minute, wondering how it got there.

Rei walks in, a jansport backpack over his shoulders and spies Tyson.

"Oh!" he smiles and tightens the straps on his backpack. "Good timing!"

He hands his cell phone to Tyson.

"Do you think you can call a taxi for me? That's all I need, and then you can keep my cell phone, because I don't think I can get bars in Antarctica."

"Sit down, Rei," Tyson says a little bit harshly, "maybe you need to sleep."

Rei stares at him with wide eyes.

"Sleep? Why would I need more of that? Kenny has already got me doing 7 hours a day, isn't that enough?"

Tyson sighs and places his hand on Rei's shoulder.

"Rei, we need you here more than the penguins in Antarctica need you."

Rei smiles.

"You're lying."

_Let's pretend we don't exist  
Let's pretend we're in Antartica_

---

"So Kenny was right," the note says, "And so was Tyson. I don't really need to go to Antarctica, and I don't need to pretend I don't exist, and the opposite of immortality isn't getting younger, it's just stopping. Just stopping everything."

Max inhales loudly and Kai walks into the room, first spying Max. "Max? What's that?"

Max hands Kai the paper.

"The answer has been staring right at me everytime I looked outside the balcony. It's the sky. It's Heaven. Antarctica and Heaven must be the same things, right? I look up in the sky, and I see a penguin. The clouds... that must mean it's snowing in Heaven, right? And the reason why I feel so cold lately, is because everyone in Heaven is trying to tell me that Antarctica is too far away, and I can just go to Heaven very quickly. As it turns out, Kenny was right in the fact that I should just sleep. I just should sleep eternally. That's the way to get into Heaven. So I took a couple sleeping pills, and i'm feeling really happy as I write this now. No more pretending. I've stopped to exist. Isn't it great?"

Kai drops the paper, his eyes stretching open as he turns around and sees the familiar body on the bed behind him.

"Rei!!" he screams and rushes to the side of the bed, shaking his friend. "Rei?!" he whines and takes Rei's hand into his, blinking his eyes as he feels a small bud in between their hands. He pulls out the earplug thats in Rei's fist and brings it to his ear.  
"Let's pretend we don't exist," the cheerful melody plays, and Kai wants to believe it's taunting him, "Let's pretend we're in Antarctica..."

_Fin_

---

A/N: Augh! Don't kill me anymore guys, I know I've killed Rei too many times T.T But, hope you enjoyed, and R/R please:)


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